Second Life

It was inevitable … as with all other academics interested in games I’ve been co-opted into working on Second Life.

The University of Sussex offerered me a PhD starting in October but weren’t able to finalise the paperwork in time so they created a temporary position for me doing some research into SL. I’ve been posting some notes for this project on a new blog, Blind Second Life, though it’s unlikely to be of interest to you unless you have some investment in visual impairment or SL.

Manhunt 2

My last game has finally been released (at least in the US), though I have it on good authority that all of the Rockstar Vienna staff, who actually made the game prior to the ratings controversy and subsequent editing, have been stripped from the credits.

However, apparently some enterprising people have worked out how to modify the game content (which isn’t a first for R*), and you can even find traces of my work on the disk, and a reference to Rockstar Vienna (RSV),

WeaponTD.ini

########Added by RSV, sledge_hammer derived from baseball_bat above#########################

RECORD sledgehammer
   CLASS         WC_MELEE
   MELEE_CLASS      BEATER2
   SHOT_TYPE_1      sledgeHammerShotQuick

# [GARETH] For the CIA Trap
RECORD heligun
   CLASS      WC_AMMO

I haven’t played the released version myself, but it sounds like it’s virtually identical to the PS2 & Xbox version we finished back in summer 2006, apart from the edits needed to comply with the ESRB, obviously.

At least Wikipedia and the Austrian National broadcaster ORF [German language] give us credit, despite the blatent lies that the Rockstar PR machine spews out.

Then again, it’s a crap game, as the developers knew all along, so perhaps it’s no great loss that I’m not officially connected with it.